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Metatron Omega ‎– Gnosis Dei

Metatron Omega. Cryo Chamber again pulls out of nowhere a completely unknown project. And once again it sounds like an old timer – sometimes I wonder if it isn’t Simon Heath himself taking on a new nickname every once in a while, and swindling the listeners claiming that he just found a new dark ambient talent, while in fact he’s just giving a vent to his creative hyperactivity under a different banner.

Joking aside though, Metatron Omega is a one-man project coming from Serbia, and “Gnosis Dei” is his absolute debut. In addition to his rather pretentious pseudonym (Scorpio V) I know nothing more about him. You can hear that he knows what’s going on in the genre, but at the same time he’s trying to move on the safe, beaten track, which as I have said many times, in the case of dark ambient doesn’t necessarily have to be a disadvantage. But this approach the reviewer’s bane, because what’s there to write without falling into a cliché and repeating yourself for the thousandth time.

What I like is the fact that each issue contains a lower or higher dose of melancholy. Darkness is omnipresent, obviously; not one imposed by inner visions of death and destruction, but the more nostalgic one. Still the standards, you know, abandoned temples, distant choirs, echoes of once glorious, today almost forgotten civilizations, a clear references to Raison D’être or Kammarheit, yet I can’t deny that it’s pleasurable, nice in reception and quite suggestive. It still works, at least for this group of enthusiasts like us.

Yet there are sequences that irritate me a little, sometimes even more than “a little” – I mean inflated declamations in several tracks. That particular attribute in atmospheric music like dark ambient, I just can’t accept. Pathos in an appropriate dosage is fine, but when this thin line is crossed, then I begin to gnash my teeth. For example this is why I just can’t stand Coph Nia’s music – in Metatron Omega’s case it’s not so intrusive, but they make me think of the equipment which will allow me to mute the selected path in the selected track by the press of a button. Really I even prefer to implement a ton of movie samples, although it’s often a cheap solution. Such a professional perversion by me.

But when it comes to instrumental passages or field recordings, it’s all really nice. Like “Hierosgamos” for example, an excellent piece. Or the first half of “Godhead Emanation”, or the fantastic “Transfiguration”, emanating perhaps the most solemn atmosphere. The record is very compact atmospherically and really top notch sounding. Overall I rate it positively, even if in a year from today when listening to a randomly selected piece I’ll have to really strain my mind to recall which project is responsible for it. In this rainy autumn period, however, it gives me some nice thrills and blends in smoothly with the dark-grey aura behind my window.